CNN votes Rome statue among top 11 most ugly monuments in world

The controversial statue of Blessed John Paul II outside Rome's Termini station has been included on the CNN list of the world's ugliest monuments.

Oliviero Rainaldi's statue has been ranked among 11 other international monuments deemed the "world's ugliest" by the American news network.

The CNN describes its list as a "collection of sentimental howlers and overblown statement pieces" that serve "as gaudy testament to overreaching creative ambition." The list includes monuments in Belarus, London, North Korea, Senegal, Turkmenistan and the US.  

When Rainaldi's statue was unveiled in Rome in May 2011 it generated widespread disapproval, not least of all from the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano which said it resembled a sentry box. 

The furore led the city to request a re-working of the statue which was unveiled a second time six months later.